As of 2017, it was the seventh-highest income county in the United States, with a per capita personal income of $119,868.[20] As of 2015, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $154.2 billion, and a GDP per capita of $178,479.[21][22] The
San Francisco CSA was the country's third-largest urban economy as of 2017, with a GDP of $907 billion.[23] Of the 500+
primary statistical areas in the US, the San Francisco CSA had among the highest GDP per capita in 2017, at $93,938.[23] San Francisco was ranked 16th in the world and third in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of March 2019.[24]

The
California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers (known as "forty-niners", as in "1849"). With their
sourdough bread in tow,[38] prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival
Benicia,[39] raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849.[40] The promise of great wealth was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor.[41]
Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships,
saloons and hotels; many were left to rot and some were sunk to establish title to the underwater lot. By 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870
Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land. Buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings.[42]

California was quickly
granted statehood in 1850, and the U.S. military built
Fort Point at the
Golden Gate and a fort on
Alcatraz Island to secure the San Francisco Bay. Silver discoveries, including the
Comstock Lode in
Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth.[43] With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the
Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, and gambling.[44]

Entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush. Early winners were the banking industry, with the founding of
Wells Fargo in 1852 and the
Bank of California in 1864. Development of the
Port of San Francisco and the establishment in 1869 of overland access to the eastern U.S. rail system via the newly completed
Pacific Railroad (the construction of which the city only reluctantly helped support[45]) helped make the Bay Area a center for trade. Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing population,
Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and
Domingo Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Immigrant laborers made the city a polyglot culture, with
Chinese Railroad Workers, drawn to "Old Gold Mountain", creating the city's
Chinatown quarter. In 1870, Asians made up 8% of the population.[46] The first
cable cars carried San Franciscans up
Clay Street in 1873. The city's sea of
Victorian houses began to take shape, and civic leaders campaigned for a spacious public park, resulting in plans for
Golden Gate Park. San Franciscans built schools, churches, theaters, and all the hallmarks of civic life. The
Presidio developed into the most important American military installation on the Pacific coast.[47] By 1890, San Francisco's population approached 300,000, making it the
eighth-largest city in the United States at the time. Around 1901, San Francisco was a major city known for its flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on
Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene.[48] The first North American plague epidemic was the
San Francisco plague of 1900–1904.[49]

At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a major
earthquake struck San Francisco and northern California. As buildings collapsed from the shaking, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that spread across the city and burned out of control for several days. With water mains out of service, the
Presidio Artillery Corps attempted to contain the inferno by dynamiting blocks of buildings to create firebreaks.[50] More than three-quarters of the city lay in ruins, including almost all of the downtown core.[27] Contemporary accounts reported that 498 people lost their lives, though modern estimates put the number in the several thousands.[51] More than half of the city's population of 400,000 was left homeless.[52] Refugees settled temporarily in makeshift tent villages in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, on the beaches, and elsewhere. Many fled permanently to the
East Bay.

Urban planning projects in the 1950s and 1960s involved widespread destruction and redevelopment of west-side neighborhoods and the construction of new freeways, of which only a series of short segments were built before being halted by
citizen-led opposition.[60] The onset of
containerization made San Francisco's small piers obsolete, and cargo activity moved to the larger
Port of Oakland.[61] The city began to lose industrial jobs and turned to tourism as the most important segment of its economy.[62] The suburbs experienced rapid growth, and San Francisco underwent significant demographic change, as large segments of the white population left the city, supplanted by an increasing wave of
immigration from Asia and Latin America.[63][64] From 1950 to 1980, the city lost over 10 percent of its population.

Two recent decades have seen two booms driven by the internet industry. First was the
dot-com boom of the late 1990s,
startup companies invigorated the San Francisco economy. Large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer application developers moved into the city, followed by marketing, design, and sales professionals, changing the social landscape as once-poorer neighborhoods became increasingly
gentrified.[72] Demand for new housing and office space ignited a second wave of high-rise development, this time in the South of Market district.[73] By 2000, the city's population reached new highs, surpassing the previous record set in 1950. When the bubble burst in 2001, many of these companies folded and their employees were laid off. Yet high technology and entrepreneurship remain mainstays of the San Francisco economy. By the mid-2000s (decade), the
social media boom had begun, with San Francisco becoming a popular location for tech offices and a common place to live for people employed in
Silicon Valley companies such as
Apple and
Google.[74]

There are more than 50 hills within the city limits.[75] Some neighborhoods are named after the hill on which they are situated, including
Nob Hill,
Potrero Hill, and
Russian Hill.
Near the geographic center of the city, southwest of the downtown area, are a series of less densely populated hills.
Twin Peaks, a pair of hills forming one of the city's highest points, forms an overlook spot. San Francisco's tallest hill,
Mount Davidson, is 928 feet (283 m) high and is capped with a 103-foot (31 m) tall cross built in 1934.[76] Dominating this area is
Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio and television transmission tower.

The nearby
San Andreas and
Hayward Faults are responsible for much earthquake activity, although neither physically passes through the city itself. The San Andreas Fault caused the earthquakes in 1906 and 1989. Minor earthquakes occur on a regular basis. The threat of major earthquakes plays a large role in the city's infrastructure development. The city constructed an
auxiliary water supply system and has repeatedly upgraded its building codes, requiring retrofits for older buildings and higher engineering standards for new construction.[77] However, there are still thousands of smaller buildings that remain vulnerable to quake damage.[78] USGS has released the California earthquake forecast which models earthquake occurrence in California.[79]

Skyscrapers are common in northeast San Francisco, the city's downtown

North of the Western Addition is
Pacific Heights, an affluent neighborhood that features the homes built by wealthy San Franciscans in the wake of the 1906 earthquake. Directly north of Pacific Heights facing the waterfront is the
Marina, a neighborhood popular with young professionals that was largely built on reclaimed land from the Bay.[89]

In the south-east quadrant of the city is the
Mission District—populated in the 19th century by
Californios and working-class immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Scandinavia. In the 1910s, a wave of Central American immigrants settled in the Mission and, in the 1950s, immigrants from
Mexico began to predominate.[90] In recent years, gentrification has changed the demographics of parts of the Mission from Latino, to
twenty-something professionals.
Noe Valley to the southwest and
Bernal Heights to the south are both increasingly popular among young families with children. East of the Mission is the
Potrero Hill neighborhood, a mostly residential neighborhood that features sweeping views of downtown San Francisco. West of the Mission, the area historically known as
Eureka Valley, now popularly called
the Castro, was once a working-class Scandinavian and Irish area. It has become North America's first
gay village, and is now the center of
gay life in the city.[91] Located near the city's southern border, the
Excelsior District is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco. The predominantly African American
Bayview-Hunters Point in the far southeast corner of the city is one of the poorest neighborhoods and suffers from a high rate of crime, though the area has been the focus of several revitalizing and controversial
urban renewal projects.

The construction of the
Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1918 connected southwest neighborhoods to downtown via streetcar, hastening the development of
West Portal, and nearby affluent
Forest Hill and
St. Francis Wood. Further west, stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean and north to
Golden Gate Park lies the vast
Sunset District, a large middle class area with a predominantly Asian population.[92]
The northwestern quadrant of the city contains the
Richmond, also a mostly middle-class neighborhood north of Golden Gate Park, home to immigrants from other parts of Asia as well as many
Russian and
Ukrainian immigrants. Together, these areas are known as
The Avenues. These two districts are each sometimes further divided into two regions: the Outer Richmond and Outer Sunset can refer to the more western portions of their respective district and the Inner Richmond and Inner Sunset can refer to the more eastern portions.

Many piers remained derelict for years until the demolition of the
Embarcadero Freeway reopened the downtown waterfront, allowing for redevelopment. The centerpiece of the port, the
Ferry Building, while still receiving commuter ferry traffic, has been restored and redeveloped as a gourmet marketplace.

Climate

San Francisco has a
warm-summer Mediterranean climate (
KöppenCsb) characteristic of California's coast, with moist mild winters and dry summers.[93] San Francisco's weather is strongly influenced by the
cool currents of the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the city, and the water of San Francisco Bay to the north and east. This moderates temperature swings and produces a remarkably mild year-round climate with little seasonal temperature variation.

Among major U.S. cities, San Francisco has the coolest daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures for June, July, and August.[94]
During the summer, rising hot air in California's interior valleys creates a low pressure area that draws winds from the
North Pacific High through the Golden Gate, which creates the city's
characteristic cool winds and fog.[95] The fog is less pronounced in eastern neighborhoods and during the late summer and early fall. As a result, the year's warmest month, on average, is September, and on average, October is warmer than July, especially in daytime.

Because of its sharp topography and maritime influences, San Francisco exhibits a multitude of distinct
microclimates. The high hills in the geographic center of the city are responsible for a 20% variance in annual rainfall between different parts of the city. They also protect neighborhoods directly to their east from the foggy and sometimes very cold and windy conditions experienced in the
Sunset District; for those who live on the eastern side of the city, San Francisco is sunnier, with an average of 260 clear days, and only 105 cloudy days per year.

Temperatures reach or exceed 80 °F (27 °C) on an average of only 21 and 23 days a year at downtown and
San Francisco International Airport (SFO), respectively.[96] The dry period of May to October is mild to warm, with the normal monthly mean temperature peaking in September at 62.7 °F (17.1 °C).[96] The rainy period of November to April is slightly cooler, with the normal monthly mean temperature reaching its lowest in January at 51.3 °F (10.7 °C).[96] On average, there are 73 rainy days a year, and annual precipitation averages 23.65 inches (601 mm).[96] Variation in precipitation from year to year is high. Above average rain years are often associated with warm
El Niño conditions in the Pacific while dry years often occur in cold water
La Niña periods. In 2013 (a "La Niña" year), a record low 5.59 in (142 mm) of rainfall was recorded at downtown San Francisco, where records have been kept since 1849.[96] Snowfall in the city is very rare, with only 10 measurable accumulations recorded since 1852, most recently in 1976 when up to 5 inches (130 mm) fell on Twin Peaks.[97][98]

The highest recorded temperature at the official
National Weather Service downtown observation station (currently at the
United States Mint building) was 106 °F (41 °C) on September 1, 2017.[99] The lowest recorded temperature was 27 °F (−3 °C) on December 11, 1932.[100] The National Weather Service provides a helpful visual aid[101] graphing the information in the table below to display visually by month the annual typical temperatures, the past year's temperatures, and record temperatures.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates San Francisco's population to be 883,305 as of July 1, 2018, with a population density of 18,838/sq mi.[14] With nearly one-quarter the population density of
Manhattan, San Francisco is the
second-most densely populated large American city, behind only New York City among cities greater than 200,000 population, and the
fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, following only four of the five New York City
boroughs.[110]

In 2010, residents of
Chinese ethnicity constituted the largest single ethnic minority group in San Francisco at 21% of the population; the other Asian groups are
Filipinos (5%) and
Vietnamese (2%).[111]
The population of Chinese ancestry is most heavily concentrated in Chinatown,
Sunset District, and
Richmond District, whereas Filipinos are most concentrated in the
Crocker-Amazon (which is contiguous with the Filipino community of
Daly City, which has one of the highest concentrations of Filipinos in North America), as well as in
SoMa.[111][112] The
Tenderloin District is home to a large portion of the city's Vietnamese population as well as businesses and restaurants, which is known as the city's Little Saigon.[111]

Ethnic clustering

San Francisco has several prominent Chinese, Mexican, and Filipino ethnic neighborhoods including
Chinatown and
the Mission District. Research collected on the immigrant clusters in the city show that more than half of the Asian population in San Francisco is either Chinese born (40.3%) or Philippine born (13.1%), and of the Mexican population 21% were Mexican born, meaning these are people who recently immigrated to the United States.[125] Between the years of 1990 and 2000, the number foreign born residents increased from 33% to nearly 40%,[125] During this same time period, the San Francisco Metropolitan area received 850,000 immigrants, ranking third in the United States after Los Angeles and New York.[125]

Education, households, and income

Of all major cities in the United States, San Francisco has the second-highest percentage of residents with a college degree, behind only
Seattle. Over 44% of adults have a bachelor's or higher degree.[126]
San Francisco had the highest rate at 7,031 per square mile, or over 344,000 total graduates in the city's 46.7 square miles (121 km2).[127]

San Francisco has the highest percentage of gay and lesbian individuals of any of the 50 largest U.S. cities, at 15%.[128]
San Francisco also has the highest percentage of same-sex households of any American county, with the Bay Area having a higher concentration than any other
metropolitan area.[129]

San Francisco ranks third of American cities in median household income[133] with a 2007 value of $65,519.[114] Median family income is $81,136.[114]
An emigration of middle-class families has left the city with a lower proportion of children than any other large American city,[134] with the dog population cited as exceeding the child population of 115,000, in 2018.[135]
The city's
poverty rate is 12%, lower than the national average.[136]Homelessness has been a chronic problem for San Francisco since the early 1970s.[137]
The city is believed to have the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major U.S. city.[138][139]

There are 345,811 households in the city, out of which: 133,366 households (39%) were individuals, 109,437 (32%) were
opposite-sex married couples, 63,577 (18%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 21,677 (6%) were
unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 10,384 (3%) were
same-sex married couples or partnerships. The average household size was 2.26; the average family size was 3.11. 452,986 people (56%) lived in rental housing units, and 327,985 people (41%) lived in owner-occupied housing units.
The median age of the city population is 38 years.

Homelessness

In 2017, 7,500 homeless people were officially counted in the city, two-thirds of whom were dealing with serious health issues like mental illness or
HIV.[141][142]
The city of San Francisco has been dramatically increasing expenditure directed to alleviate the homelessness crisis: spending jumped by $241 million in 2016–17 to total $275 million, compared to a budget of just $34 million the previous year. In 2017–18 the budget for combatting homelessness, much of which is directed towards the building of new shelters and expanding capacity, stood at $305 million.[143]

In January 2018 a
United Nations special rapporteur on homelessness,
Leilani Farha, stated that she was "completely shocked" by San Francisco's homelessness crisis during a visit to the city. She compared the "deplorable conditions" of the homeless camps she witnessed on San Francisco's streets to those she had seen in
Mumbai.[143]

Economy

According to academic Rob Wilson, San Francisco is a
global city, a status that pre-dated the city's popularity during the
California Gold Rush.[144] Such cities are characterized by their
ethnic clustering, network of international connectivity, and convergence of technological innovation.[125] Global cities, such as San Francisco, are considered to be complex and require a high level of talent as well as large masses of low wage workers. A divide is created within the city of ethnic, typically lower-class neighborhoods, and expensive ones with newly developed buildings. This in turn creates a population of highly educated, white-collar individuals as well as blue-collar workers, many of whom are immigrants, and who both are drawn to the increasing number of opportunities available.[145] Competition for these opportunities pushes growth and adaptation in world centers.[146]

The top employer in the city is the city government itself, employing 5.6% (31,000+ people) of the city's workforce, followed by
UCSF with over 25,000 employees.[165] The largest private-sector employer is
Salesforce, with 8,500 employees, as of 2018.[166] Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees and self-employed firms make up 85% of city establishments,[167] and the number of San Franciscans employed by firms of more than 1,000 employees has fallen by half since 1977.[168] The growth of national
big box and
formula retail chains into the city has been made intentionally difficult by political and civic consensus. In an effort to buoy small privately owned businesses in San Francisco and preserve the unique retail personality of the city, the Small Business Commission started a publicity campaign in 2004 to keep a larger share of retail dollars in the local economy,[169] and the Board of Supervisors has used the planning code to limit the neighborhoods where formula retail establishments can set up shop,[170] an effort affirmed by San Francisco voters.[171] However, by 2016, San Francisco was rated low by small businesses in a Business Friendliness Survey.[172]

Like many U.S. cities, San Francisco once had a significant manufacturing sector employing nearly 60,000 workers in 1969, but nearly all production left for cheaper locations by the 1980s.[173] As of 2014[update], San Francisco has seen a small resurgence in manufacturing, with more than 4,000 manufacturing jobs across 500 companies, doubling since 2011. The city's largest manufacturing employer is
Anchor Brewing Company, and the largest by revenue is
Timbuk2.[173]

Technology

San Francisco became a hub for technological driven economic growth during the
internet boom of the 1990s, and still holds an important position in the world city network today.[174][175] Intense redevelopment towards the "
new economy" makes business more technologically minded. Between the years of 1999 and 2000, the job growth rate was 4.9%, creating over 50,000 jobs in technology firms and internet content production.[174]

In the second technological boom driven by social media in the mid 2000s, San Francisco became a location for companies such as
Apple,
Google,
Facebook and
Twitter to base their tech offices and for their employees to live.[176] Since then, tech employment has continued to increase. In 2014, San Francisco's tech employment grew nearly 90% between 2010 and 2014, beating out
Silicon Valley's 30% growth rate over the same period.[177]

The tech sector's dominance in the
Bay Area is internationally recognized and continues to attract new businesses and young entrepreneurs from all over the globe.[177] San Francisco is now widely considered the most important city in the world for new
technology startups.[178] A recent high of 7 billion dollars in
venture capital was invested in the region.[177] These startup companies hire a high concentration of well educated individuals looking to work in the tech industry, and creates a city population of highly concentrated levels of education. Over 50% of San Franciscans have a 4-year university degree, ranking the city among the highest levels of education in the country and world.[176]

Tourism and conventions

Tourism is one of the city's largest private-sector industries, accounting for more than one out of seven jobs in the city.[156][179] The city's
frequent portrayal in music, film, and popular culture has made the city and its landmarks recognizable worldwide. In 2016, it attracted the fifth-highest number of foreign tourists of any city in the United States.[180] More than 25 million visitors arrived in San Francisco in 2016, adding US$9.96 billion to the economy.[181]
With a large hotel infrastructure and a world-class convention facility in the
Moscone Center, San Francisco is a popular destination for annual conventions and conferences.[182]

Lombard Street is a popular tourist destination in San Francisco, known for its “crookedness”

Some of the most popular tourist attractions in San Francisco noted by the Travel Channel include the
Golden Gate Bridge and
Alamo Square Park, which is home to the famous "
Painted Ladies". Both of these locations were often used as landscape shots for the hit American sitcom
Full House. There is also
Lombard Street, known for its "crookedness" and extensive views. Tourists also visit
Pier 39, which offers dining, shopping, entertainment, and views of the bay, sun-bathing seals, and the famous
Alcatraz Island.[183]

San Francisco also offers tourists cultural and unique nightlife in its neighborhoods.[184]

The new Terminal Project at Pier 27 opened September 25, 2014 as a replacement for the old Pier 35.[185] Itineraries from San Francisco usually include round trip cruises to Alaska and Mexico.

A heightened interest in conventioneering in San Francisco, marked by the establishment of convention centers such as Yerba Buena, acted as a feeder into the local tourist economy and resulted in an increase in the hotel industry: "In 1959, the city had fewer than thirty-three hundred first-class hotel rooms; by 1970, the number was nine thousand; and by 1999, there were more than thirty thousand."[186] The
commodification of the
Castro District has contributed to San Francisco's tourist economy.[187]

Culture and contemporary life

Although the
Financial District,
Union Square, and
Fisherman's Wharf are well-known around the world, San Francisco is also characterized by its numerous culturally rich streetscapes featuring
mixed-use neighborhoods anchored around
central commercial corridors to which residents and visitors alike can walk. Because of these characteristics, San Francisco is ranked the second "most walkable" city in the United States by Walkscore.com.[188] Many neighborhoods feature a mix of businesses, restaurants and venues that cater to both the daily needs of local residents while also serving many visitors and tourists. Some neighborhoods are dotted with boutiques, cafés and nightlife such as Union Street in
Cow Hollow, 24th Street in
Noe Valley, Valencia Street in the
Mission, Grant Avenue in
North Beach, and Irving Street in the
Inner Sunset. This approach especially has influenced the continuing South of Market neighborhood redevelopment with businesses and neighborhood services rising alongside high-rise residences.[189]

Since the 1990s, the demand for skilled
information technology workers from local startups and nearby
Silicon Valley has attracted
white-collar workers from all over the world and created a high standard of living in San Francisco.[190] Many neighborhoods that were once
blue-collar, middle, and lower class have been
gentrifying, as many of the city's traditional business and industrial districts have experienced a renaissance driven by the redevelopment of the
Embarcadero, including the neighborhoods
South Beach and
Mission Bay. The city's property values and household income have risen to among the highest in the nation,[191][192][193] creating a large and upscale restaurant, retail, and entertainment scene. According to a 2014 quality of life survey of global cities, San Francisco has the
highest quality of living of any U.S. city.[194] However, due to the exceptionally high cost of living, many of the city's middle and lower-class families have been leaving the city for the outer suburbs of the Bay Area, or for California's
Central Valley.[195] By June 2, 2015, the median rent was reported to be as high as $4,225.[196] The high cost of living is due in part to restrictive planning laws which limit new residential construction.[197]

The international character that San Francisco has enjoyed since its founding is continued today by large numbers of immigrants from Asia and Latin America. With 39% of its residents born overseas,[168] San Francisco has numerous neighborhoods filled with businesses and civic institutions catering to new arrivals. In particular, the arrival of many ethnic Chinese, which accelerated beginning in the 1970s, has complemented the long-established community historically based in
Chinatown throughout the city and has transformed the annual
Chinese New Year Parade into the largest event of its kind outside China.[198]

The
Sunset Reservoir Solar Project, completed in 2010, installed 24,000 solar panels on the roof of the reservoir. The 5-megawatt plant more than tripled the city's 2-megawatt solar generation capacity when it opened in December 2010.[210][211]

LGBT

San Francisco has long had an
LGBT-friendly
history. It was home to the first lesbian-rights organization in the United States,
Daughters of Bilitis; the first openly gay person to run for public office in the United States,
José Sarria; the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California,
Harvey Milk; the first openly lesbian judge appointed in the U.S.,
Mary C. Morgan; and the first
transgender police commissioner,
Theresa Sparks. The city's large gay population has created and sustained a politically and culturally active community over many decades, developing a powerful presence in San Francisco's civic life. Survey data released in 2015 by
Gallup place the proportion of the San Francisco metro area at 6.2%, which is the highest such proportion observed of the 50 most populous metropolitan areas as measured by the polling organization.[212]

One of the most popular destinations for gay tourists internationally, the city hosts
San Francisco Pride, one of the largest and oldest
pride parades.
San Francisco Pride events have been held continuously since 1972. The events are themed and a new theme is created each year. In 2013, over 1.5 million people attended, around 500,000 more than the previous year.[213]

Museums

The
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) houses 20th century and contemporary works of art. It moved to its current building in the
South of Market neighborhood in 1995 and attracted more than 600,000 visitors annually.[219] SFMOMA closed for renovation and expansion in 2013. The museum reopened on May 14, 2016 with an addition, designed by
Snøhetta, that has doubled the museum's size.[220]

Nicknames

San Francisco has several nicknames, including "The City by the Bay", "Golden Gate City",[222] "Frisco", "SF", "San Fran", and "Fog City", as well as older ones like "The City that Knows How", "Baghdad by the Bay", "The Paris of the West", or, as locals call it, "The City".[1]

The San Francisco Warriors played in the NBA from 1962–1971, before being renamed the
Golden State Warriors prior to the 1971–1972 season in an attempt to present the team as a representation of the whole state of
California.[227] The Warrior's stadium,
Oracle Arena, is currently located in
Oakland.[228] They have won 6 championships,[229] including three of the last four.

With an ideal climate for outdoor activities, San Francisco has ample resources and opportunities for amateur and participatory sports and recreation. There are more than 200 miles (320 km) of
bicycle paths, lanes and bike routes in the city.[235]
San Francisco residents have often ranked among the fittest in the country.[236]Golden Gate Park has miles of paved and unpaved running trails as well as a
golf course and
disc golf course.
Boating, sailing,
windsurfing and
kitesurfing are among the popular activities on San Francisco Bay, and the city maintains a yacht harbor in the
Marina District.

San Francisco is the first city in the U.S. to have a park within a
10-Minute Walk of every resident.[241][242] It also ranks fifth in the U.S. for park access and quality in the 2018 ParkScore ranking of the top 100 park systems across the United States, according to the nonprofit
Trust for Public Land.[243]

Law and government

San Francisco—officially known as the City and County of San Francisco—is a
consolidated city-county, a status it has held since the 1856 secession of what is now
San Mateo County.[25] It is the only such consolidation in California.[244] The
mayor is also the county executive, and the county
Board of Supervisors acts as the
city council. The government of San Francisco is a
charter city and is constituted of two co-equal branches. The executive branch is headed by the mayor and includes other citywide elected and appointed officials as well as the civil service. The 11-member Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch, is headed by a president and is responsible for passing laws and budgets, though San Franciscans also make use of
direct ballot initiatives to pass legislation.[245]

The members of the Board of Supervisors are elected as representatives of specific districts within the city.[246] Upon the death or resignation of mayor, the President of the Board of Supervisors becomes acting mayor until the full Board elects an interim replacement for the remainder of the term. In 1978,
Dianne Feinstein assumed the office following the assassination of
George Moscone and was later selected by the board to finish the term. In 2011,
Edwin M. Lee was selected by the board to finish the term of
Gavin Newsom, who resigned to take office as
Lieutenant Governor of California.[247] Lee (who won 2 elections to remain mayor) was temporarily replaced by San Francisco Board of Supervisors President
London Breed after he died on December 12, 2017. Supervisor
Mark Farrell was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to finish Lee's term on January 23, 2018.

The municipal budget for fiscal year 2015–16 was $8.99 billion,[249] and is one of the largest city budgets in the United States.[250] The City of San Francisco spends more per resident than any city other than Washington D.C, over $10,000 in FY 2015–2016.[250] The city employs around 27,000 workers.[251]

CHP officers enforce the California Vehicle Code, pursue fugitives spotted on the highways, and attend to all significant obstructions and accidents within their jurisdiction.

In 2011, 50 murders were reported, which is 6.1 per 100,000 people.[253] There were about 134 rapes, 3,142 robberies, and about 2,139 assaults. There were about 4,469 burglaries, 25,100 thefts, and 4,210 motor vehicle thefts.[254] The
Tenderloin area has the highest crime rate in San Francisco: 70% of the city's violent crimes, and around one-fourth of the city's murders, occur in this neighborhood. The Tenderloin also sees high rates of drug abuse, gang violence, and prostitution.[255] Another area with high crime rates is the
Bayview-Hunters Point area. In the first six months of 2015 there were 25 murders compared to 14 in the first six months of 2014. However, the murder rate is still much lower than in past decades.[256] That rate, though, did rise again by the close of 2016. According to the San Francisco Police Department, there were 59 murders in the city in 2016, an annual total that marked a 13.5% increase in the number of homicides (52) from 2015.[257]

Gangs

Several street gangs operate in the city, including
MS-13,[258] the
Sureños and
Norteños in the Mission District,.[259] African-American street gangs familiar in other cities, including the
Crips, have struggled to establish footholds in San Francisco,[260] while police and prosecutors have been accused of liberally labeling young African-American males as gang members.[261] Criminal gangs with shotcallers in China, including
Triad groups such as the
Wo Hop To, have been reported active in San Francisco.[262] In 1977, an ongoing rivalry between two Chinese gangs led to a
shooting attack at the Golden Dragon restaurant in Chinatown, which left 5 people dead and 11 wounded. None of the victims in this attack were gang members. Five members of the
Joe Boys gang were arrested and convicted of the crime.[263] In 1990, a gang-related shooting killed one man and wounded six others outside a nightclub near Chinatown.[264] In 1998, six teenagers were shot and wounded at the Chinese Playground; a 16-year-old boy was subsequently arrested.[265]

Education

Colleges and universities

The
University of California, San Francisco is the sole campus of the
University of California system entirely dedicated to graduate education in health and biomedical sciences. It is ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States[269] and operates the
UCSF Medical Center, which ranks as the number one hospital in California and the number 5 in the country.[270] UCSF is a major local employer, second in size only to the city and county government.[271][272][273] A 43-acre (17 ha)
Mission Bay campus was opened in 2003, complementing its original facility in
Parnassus Heights. It contains research space and facilities to foster biotechnology and life sciences entrepreneurship and will double the size of UCSF's research enterprise.[274] All in all, UCSF operates more than 20 facilities across San Francisco.[275] The
University of California, Hastings College of the Law, founded in
Civic Center in 1878, is the oldest law school in California and claims more judges on the state bench than any other institution.[276]
San Francisco's two University of California institutions have recently formed an official affiliation in the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy.[277]

The San Francisco Bay Area is the sixth-largest
television market[294] and the fourth-largest
radio market[295] in the U.S. The city's oldest radio station,
KCBS, began as an experimental station in San Jose in 1909, before the beginning of commercial broadcasting.
KALW was the city's first FM radio station when it signed on the air in 1941. The city's first television station was
KPIX, which began broadcasting in 1948.

San Francisco-based inventors made important contributions to modern media. During the 1870s,
Eadweard Muybridge began recording motion photographically and invented a
zoopraxiscope with which to view his recordings. These were the first motion pictures. Then in 1927,
Philo Farnsworth's image dissector camera tube transmitted its first image. This was the first television.

Transportation

Freeways and roads

Due to its unique geography, and the
freeway revolts of the late 1950s,[298]Interstate 80 begins at the approach to the
Bay Bridge and is the only direct automobile link to the East Bay.
U.S. Route 101 connects to the western terminus of Interstate 80 and provides access to the south of the city along San Francisco Bay toward
Silicon Valley. Northward, the routing for U.S. 101 uses arterial streets to connect to the
Golden Gate Bridge, the only direct automobile link to
Marin County and the North Bay.

To accommodate the large amount of San Francisco citizens who commute to the
Silicon Valley daily, companies like
Google and
Apple have begun to provide private bus transportation for their employees, from San Francisco locations to the tech start-up hotspot. These buses have quickly become a heated topic of debate within the city, as
protesters claim they block bus lanes and delay public buses.[308]

Airports

San Francisco International Airport is the primary airport of San Francisco and the Bay Area

Though located 13 miles (21 km) south of downtown in unincorporated
San Mateo County,
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is under the jurisdiction of the City and County of San Francisco. SFO is a hub for
United Airlines[309] and
Alaska Airlines.[310] SFO is a major international gateway to Asia and Europe, with the largest international terminal in North America.[311] In 2011, SFO was the eighth-busiest airport in the U.S. and the 22nd-busiest in the world, handling over 40.9 million passengers.[312]

Located across the bay,
Oakland International Airport is a popular, low-cost alternative to SFO. Geographically, Oakland Airport is approximately the same distance from downtown San Francisco as SFO, but due to its location across
San Francisco Bay, it is greater driving distance from San Francisco.

San Francisco has significantly higher rates of pedestrian and bicyclist traffic deaths than the United States on average. In 2013, 21 pedestrians were killed in vehicle collisions, the highest since 2001,[319] which is 2.5 deaths per 100,000 population – 70% higher than the national average of 1.5 deaths per 100,000 population.[320]

Cycling is growing in San Francisco. Annual bicycle counts conducted by the
Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) in 2010 showed the number of cyclists at 33 locations had increased 58% from the 2006 baseline counts.[321] In 2008, the MTA estimated that about 128,000 trips were made by bicycle each day in the city, or 6% of total trips.[322] Since 2002, improvements in
cycling infrastructure in recent years, including additional bike lanes and parking racks, have made cycling in San Francisco safer and more convenient.[323] Since 2006, San Francisco has received a Bicycle Friendly Community status of "Gold" from the
League of American Bicyclists.[324]

^Sourdough bread was a staple of western explorers and miners of the 19th century. It became an iconic symbol of San Francisco, and is still a staple of city life today.Tamony, Peter (October 1973). "Sourdough and French Bread". Western Folklore. 32 (4): 265–270.
doi:
10.2307/1498306.
JSTOR1498306.

^"The miners came in forty-nine, / The whores in fifty-one, / And when they got together / They produced the native son." Wiley, Peter Booth (2000). National trust guide- San Francisco: America's guide for architecture and history travelers. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 237–238.
ISBN978-0-471-19120-9.
OCLC44313415.

^Construction of the Pacific Railroad was partially (albeit reluctantly) funded by the
City and County of San Francisco Pacific Railroad Bond issue under the provisions of "An Act to Authorize the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco to take and subscribe One Million Dollars to the Capital Stock of the Western Pacific Rail Road Company and the Central Pacific Rail Road Company of California and to provide for the payment of the same and other matters relating thereto." approved on April 22, 1863, as amended by §5 of the "Compromise Act of 1864" approved on April 4, 1864. The bond issue was objected to by the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors, however, and they were not delivered to the WPRR and CPRR until 1865 after Writs of Mandamus ordering such were issued by the Supreme Court of the State of California in 1864 ("The People of the State of California on the relation of the Central Pacific Railroad Company vs. Henry P. Coon, Mayor; Henry M. Hale, Auditor; and Joseph S. Paxson, Treasurer, of the City and County of San Francisco" 25 Cal 635) and 1865 ("The People ex rel The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California vs. The Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, and Wilhelm Lowey, Clerk" 27 Cal 655)

^Ted Egan (April 3, 2006).
"City and County of San Francisco: An Overview of San Francisco's Recent Economic Performance"(PDF). Report prepared for Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development. ICF Consulting. Archived from
the original(PDF) on February 1, 2009. Retrieved June 19, 2008. Another positive trend for the future is San Francisco's highly entrepreneurial, flexible and innovative economy...San Francisco's very high reliance on small business and self-employment is typical of other dynamic, fast-growing, high-technology areas across the country.

^"Economic Characteristics". 2005–2009 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates – Data Profile Highlights. U.S. Census Bureau. 2007. Archived from
the original on January 3, 2011. Retrieved January 9, 2015.